This invention relates to envelopes having remailable portions and more particularly to an envelope with a remailable portion having an opening with a closure flap.
Mailing envelopes in which a portion of the envelope provides a remailable portion upon opening the envelope have been used for some time. The advantages of this type of envelope include, in addition to other advantages, substantial reductions in the material required, cost of material, and waste material, and provides confidentiality. For example, in the Buescher patents, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,190,162 and 4,334,618 mailing envelopes are having perforations on the back and front sides such that the envelope separates at the perforations upon opening into a reusable portion which forms a mailable envelope and a relatively small disposable portion. The perforations are predeterminately located such that the reusable portion of the original envelope is formed with a closure flap so that the reusable portion can be closed and mailed with an insert or letter.
While the above types of envelopes have been commercially successful, it has been found that in some cases where the envelope is designed so that the original envelope has an opening with a flap such that it can be hand or automatically stuffed with an insert, the envelope can be damaged during stuffing due to the inadvertent partial bursting of one or more perforations. Also, in some cases, the perforations have either tended to require an excessively large pulling or snapping force to open the envelope or have been made so weak the envelope is subject to damage during handling and mailing due to undesired bursting of a perforation.